How is this lighting achieved?

Hi everyone, I just joined and I am looking forward to talking to you all on this forum!

Here for instance, is a photograph of some guy I found. How did Miss Kay achieve the straight black background but a well lit man? What kind of area could she have been in? Is this photoshopped at all? other than to desaturate a bit I am assuming...

It's a combination of a lot of things. But for starters, I'll just assume that you don't know that you shouldn't post someone else's photo anywhere. It's copyright infringement. The proper thing to do if to link back to the place that they had it displayed.

Moving on. It's more likely shot on a black background, possibly velvet since it's so completely black. But it is possible to do that sort of this with any color, by controlling light to background distances. If the background is far enough away then the lights that are lighting the subject won't reach the background. Just go out in a parking lot or sports field, and light you subject however you want. Keep the shot on the upper portion of the person, and keep the camera angle low and straight on, that way none of the ground is in the picture fo the first 30-40 feet. That way since the first thing in the picture besides him is so far away, it will be totally black.

And I highly doubt they used a flash on their camera, what is the average type eof light source in an image like this?

Click to expand...

Looks like several strobes or studio lights were used. A softbox or octobox to the left of the subject (camera right), another one from high on the left side of the subject (camera right) and possibly a bare strobe from the back-right side of the subject (camera left) for a rim light affect on the right side of the subject.

From the Forum Rules and Regulations: "* You agree to only post images and/or other material to which you have exclusive copyright, or permission from the copyright holder that you are able to present to TPF Staff. Under no circumstances will any instance of copyright infringement be tolerated."